Council overrides veto on Marshall University

Marshall University will move forward on construction of new residence halls and a student recreation center.

Bryan Chambers

Marshall University will move forward on construction of new residence halls and a student recreation center.

The Huntington City Council voted 9-0 Monday to override Mayor David Felinton's veto of two ordinances that authorized the sale of two pieces of property to Marshall for $10,000.

Felinton last week vetoed the sale of an alley behind the old 20th Street Baptist Church site that the church had used as a small parking lot and loading area. He also vetoed an ordinance to sell a small strip of Elm Street that runs between two parking lots from 3rd Avenue to the old Weiler Steel Property off of Commerce Avenue.

Marshall needs the property behind the old church site to build the student recreation center and residence halls. It needs the Elm Street property to build an engineering school.

Monday's vote ended a war of words between Felinton and Menis Ketchum, chairman of Marshall's Board of Governors.

Felinton vetoed the sale of the properties because he says Marshall's appraisal of $10,000 was too low. The appraisal, which was performed by David Bunch, valued the properties at 55 cents per square foot.

The mayor had a second appraisal done a day before City Council approved the sale two weeks ago. That appraisal, done by Rolston and Co. of Charleston, valued the properties at $184,000.

He offered last week to sell the properties to Marshall for $97,000, the midpoint between the two appraisals.

Ketchum, however, argued that Marshall's appraisal was appropriate because the properties were of no use to anyone but Marshall and that they could not be reused for commercial use. He also said that the vetoes threatened to derail the construction of the residence halls and recreation center and delay the engineering school project.

The bond insurers for the residence hall and recreation center recently placed additional financial requirements on Marshall, pushing the $90 million project to the brink of falling apart, Ketchum said.

Had that happened, the city would have lost $1.9 million in business and occupation taxes during the construction phase of the project, Ketchum said.

Felinton said Monday he believes Ketchum's statements were a bullying tactic to exert pressure on City Council members to override the veto.

"I think we've been bluffed and buffaloed, and I'm disappointed that we haven't been respected like other property owners next to Marshall have," he said. "Looking at all the land Marshall has purchased over the past year, the argument that they would have to raise tuition or kill a $90 million project because of $100,000 is absolutely ludicrous."

Felinton said he would prefer that Marshall take the property through eminent domain, because selling the property for $10,000 would set a bad precedent. Future land values in the area could be based on that sale price, he said.

If Marshall took the property by eminent domain, "it would be out of my hands at that point, and I will have felt like I did everything I could have done to be a good steward of public funds," Felinton said.

Ketchum, who did not attend the meeting, said during a phone interview Monday afternoon that the university is prohibited under state law from condemning public property.

"State statutes do not give the power of one public agency to condemn the property of another public agency," he said. "It gives us power to condemn across a road or power line or gas line as long as it doesn't interfere with traffic. In our case, though, we would be condemning public alleys because we want to build on them."

Ketchum said Felinton misled Marshall when he saw the $10,000 appraisal in March and raised no objections.

"I just can't understand why the mayor changed his mind," Ketchum said. "He doesn't understand that Marshall is a public agency and is funded with taxpayer money. Whatever price we have to pay to the city, it's all taxpayer money in the end."

Felinton, on the other hand, argued he never gave any indications to Marshall that he was satisfied with the $10,000 appraisal. He said several concerns were raised about the project after he discovered that Marshall had bought railroad property near the city's property for $7.50 per square foot.

Regardless of the council's votes to override his vetoes, Felinton said he will implement a new policy requiring anyone who wants to purchase abandoned city property to use an appraiser retained by the city. He also said he will ask the state Real Estate Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board to review Marshall's $10,000 appraisal and investigate previous appraisals by Bunch on other projects.

Felinton claimed Bunch has historically undervalued city property in his appraisals.

Councilman Paul Farrell said the city is fortunate to get $10,000 from Marshall. He joked that the only other beneficial use of the properties would be for tailgating before Marshall football games.

He also said the city set a precedent in the 1980s when it gave several city blocks to Marshall for free so it could build Joan C. Edwards Stadium.

Herman Glaser, co-owner of Glaser Furniture near the corner of 3rd Avenue and 20th Street, said giving property to Marshall is a mistake that shouldn't be repeated.

"I can't remember the last council meeting when the serious financial problems of the city weren't mentioned," he said. "How many police officers could we hire or streets could we pave for $184,000?